Location: 15 miles (24 km) North of York Map
Tel. 01653 648444
House: Open: Mar- Oct: 11am- 4pm daily
Grounds: 10am- 4:30pm daily
Entrance Fee: House: adults
£9.50, senior/ student £8.50, children £6.50
Grounds: adult
£6.50, children £4.50
Located in North Yorkshire, England, about 25 miles north of the
city of York, Castle Howard is now often cited as the first truly
Baroque building to be built in England. It is also considered to be
the building whose style most closely resembles the baroque style of
mainland Europe.
The 3rd Earl of Carlisle commissioned his
friend, the then inexperienced architect John Vanbrugh, to build the
building, with Nicholas Hawksmoor, a former employee of Christopher
Wren, largely supervising the construction.
The building
design was created from 1699 and was completed by 1712, the west
wing was completed in 1759.
Castle Howard was a building
unlike any other in England at the time it was built. The facades
and roofs, decorated with columns, statues and flowing ornaments,
made this Baroque building an instant success in England, which was
followed by many similar buildings. As early as 1709 most parts of
Castle Howard could be obtained; the final work, however, dragged
through Vanbrugh's entire life. Also here is Vanbrugh's final work,
the Temple of Winds. Work on the west wing was not completed until
after Vanbrugh's death.
Castle Howard is now part of the
Treasure Houses of England consortium. In 2019 Castle Howard was
visited by around 269,000 people.
Castle Howard was the location of the feature film Barry Lyndon and
the TV and cinema productions of Brideshead Revisited. It features as
the fictional Carlyle Castle in the film Garfield 2. Castle Howard was
also used as an important filming location in the television series
Bridgerton.
Castle Howard's interiors portrayed those of
Kensington Palace in the television series Victoria.